What Are The Best Drinks For Hangover Relief You Can Make At Home?

This DIY guide includes some options for hangover relief drinks and common ingredients that can help relieve symptoms and explains how intravenous (IV) treatments can also help get rid of a hangover fast. Continue reading to learn more about how to ease hangover symptoms efficiently.

What drinks offer the best hangover relief?

Some research indicates that many hangover symptoms are caused or exacerbated by dehydration, so one of the best things you can do to fight a hangover is to focus on rehydrating yourself. Next, we will review some of the best drinks for a hangover.

Caffeine-free teas

Teas not containing caffeine are mostly made up of water, so they can help you increase your water intake when you are hungover. Some teas (such as green tea and honey chrysanthemum tea) have been shown to possibly prevent liver damage and help the body process alcohol more quickly.

It is important to avoid caffeinated teas during a hangover because caffeine is a diuretic that can worsen dehydration.

Electrolyte drinks

Electrolytes are minerals that are essential for your body’s normal function that are found in your body’s fluids.

Broths and sports drinks are high in electrolytes, which get out of balance when dehydrated. Electrolyte drinks will hydrate you and restore a healthy electrolyte balance.

Fruit, herb, mineral, vegetable, and vitamin drinks

Drinking juices, smoothies, and other beverages that contain these ingredients can also relieve hangover symptoms.

As a specific example, a beverage made of A. keiskei juice,¹ green grape juice, and pear juice may be a good drink to start with.

Whichever ingredients and consistency you choose, you should avoid drinks high in sugar because sugar contributes to dehydration.

Water

Water is the purest and most accessible option. Drinking water between alcoholic drinks and/or before you go to bed after a night of drinking alcohol will help you avoid dehydration and reduce the likelihood or severity of a hangover the next day. But if you’re reading this the day after drinking and didn’t take these preventive measures, drinking water while you have a hangover can still be helpful.

If you do not want to drink plain water, you can add fresh fruit or diluted fruit juice to flavor your water, aloe vera water, or coconut water.

Other ingredients

Certain ingredients fulfill different purposes of a hangover drink, such as:

• B vitamins and zinc, which can reduce the severity of a hangover
• Ginger helps reduce nausea
• Ginseng and pear juice degrade alcohol in your system²

Ingredients to Avoid

Not all beverages and ingredients are hydrating or useful in treating hangover symptoms. You should avoid the following when choosing what to drink during a hangover.

Some of the ingredients you should avoid:

• Alcohol: Drinking more alcohol when you wake up after a night of drinking can provide temporary hangover relief, but in the end, it only delays and prolongs the hangover.
• Ingredients that cause dehydration: Drinking beverages that contain ingredients that can cause or worsen dehydration (such as caffeine, added sugar, and high amounts of salt) is counterproductive to treating a hangover.
• Greasy food: Eating greasy food helps to slow the absorption of alcohol into your bloodstream, but it is only effective before you start drinking. Eating greasy food during a hangover can upset your stomach and make you feel worse.

What is the fastest method to get hangover relief?

The fastest way to treat a hangover is with an intravenous (IV) hangover cocktail. These contain several ingredients that fight hangover symptoms.

• Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), magnesium, and vitamin D: These compounds can decrease inflammation and body and head pain during a hangover.
• Colloids: This IV fluid is made up of large molecules that cannot be easily absorbed by your tissues and cells, making them more likely to stay in your blood vessels.
• Crystalloid IV fluids: These are the most commonly used IV fluids. They contain small dissolved molecules that your tissues and cells can easily absorb from your bloodstream. Examples of crystalloid IV fluids used to treat moderate dehydration are normal saline (salt in water) and D5W (sugar in water). Lactated Ringer’s is used to treat severe dehydration and is made up of calcium, chloride, lactate, potassium, and sodium.
• Vitamin B2: According to a 2021 study,³ vitamin B2 supplements can be used to treat migraine headaches, which are common symptoms of hangovers.
• Water and other clear liquids: Water and other clear liquids will help you rehydrate and can reduce diarrhea during a hangover.

Intravenous delivery of ingredients helps offer faster relief because the ingredients are delivered directly into your bloodstream rather than needing to pass through the digestive system before becoming effective.

A hangover IV can be administered at home by a house-call healthcare professional. This eliminates commuting to a clinic or lab and allows you to relax comfortably in your own space. It also reduces the risk of injury when inserting and removing the IV line.

Conclusion

Hangover relief drinks can help you recover from your symptoms. If you have a busy day ahead of you after a long night out, a hangover IV is an effective and convenient way to find relief from your symptoms quickly.